Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in my 8 years as Governor, I had the opportunity to appoint more than 400 Floridians to the bench. I interviewed thousands of applicants for these seats, and my standards in each of those interviews were the same. I asked them if they understood that they intended to be part of the judiciary and not part of the legislature. And I asked them if they intended to interpret the law and enforce the law but not make new laws. If they couldn't convince me that they believed that was their duty as a member of the judicial branch, then I wouldn't appoint them. We need qualified jurists committed to fairly and accurately interpreting our Constitution and our laws as they are written, not activist judges who will rewrite the laws according to their own policy preferences. Now, I have had the chance to meet with Judge Jackson. We had a nice conversation, and she seems like a nice person. But I have very serious concerns about her record as a Federal judge, which includes numerous instances of the type of judicial activism that we cannot and should not tolerate from the Federal judiciary. The fact is that Judge Jackson has written only two appellate opinions in her current position. So we have no evidence of how she will approach serious constitutional issues as an appellate judge. And she has refused to disclose how she would interpret the Constitution as a Supreme Court Justice, despite being repeatedly and directly asked by Senators on the Judiciary Committee.…”